Big shout out to my colleague Beth O'Shea for thie intriguing and brief interview blog
Hope you like it too!
Interview with Manny Perez, IBM Distinguished Engineer and Blane Rockafellow, IBM System x Market Solutions Manager
Q: What is IBM Cognos TM1 and how can it help my business?
Blane: Well I would tell you to ask yourself these three rudimentary performance questions. How are we doing? Why are we on or off track? What should we do to address performance gaps quickly? To answer these questions and... [Continue Reading]

Hi, My name is David Watts and I publish books and papers for IBM Redbooks on x86 topics. I work at the large IBM campus here in Research Triangle Park in Raleigh, North Carolina in the US. I've been writing and publishing for IBM Redbooks since 1997.
Cliff Kinard has agreed to let me join him as a blogger here on the System x and BladeCenter x86 Server Blog to let me share my insights on IBM products and technology that I come across in my day job.
I’m currently working on a paper on IBM Features on Demand. I had a couple of subject... [Continue Reading]

In my last blog posting, I introduced you to IBM Features on Demand (FoD). Here, I’ll describe the process to apply a key if you’ve purchased the upgrade after taking delivery of your System x server.
In a nutshell, here’s what you do – see the figure below for a picture of the process.
Buy a FoD upgrade using the appropriate part number
Receive an authorization code
Enter that authorization code on the IBM FoD web site , together with the unique identifier that identifies the system you want to upgrade
Download the activation... [Continue Reading]

IBM System x and Network Optimization
Blog by Dave Willoughby, IBM Senior Technical Staff Member, System x-based Workload-optimized Solutions
We are finding great ways to elevate the role of Ethernet on System x-based solutions. You may have heard about our recent additions to the IBM PureSystems family called the IBM PureData System. The PureData System is optimized for delivering data services to support transactional or analytics applications. With the System x-based PureData System for Transactions, we... [Continue Reading]

Improve your ROI through Virtualization
when Deploying DB2 pureScale on IBM System x servers
Blog by
Mel Bakhshi, IBM System
Engineer, Performance Analyst ,
Systems Optimization Competency Center
One of my coworkers, Dave Willoughby, recently posted a blog entry on
this site and wrote about IBM DB2 pureScale. As Dave writes, pureScale is a DB2
version designed for organizations that run OLTP applications on distributed
systems. It offers built-in clustering technology for high availability... [Continue Reading]

The IBM System x3750 M4 is a powerful four-socket server and there are plenty of ways to expand it. Here are six ways you can expand the x3750 M4 to meet your business needs.
1. Processors 2. Memory
These two go hand-in-hand so I’ll group them. The system planar has two processor sockets and 24 DIMM sockets. Each processor in the server connects directly to DIMMs installed in 12 sockets. If you need more processing power than two processors, you can add the Processor and Memory Expansion Tray, which gives the server two more... [Continue Reading]

Today, we announced a set of new products and options for the IBM Flex System ecosystem. We also snuck in some new options in the BladeCenter and System x spaces too. Let me tell you about a few of them.
IBM Flex System Fabric CN4093 10Gb Converged Scalable Switch
The CN4093 10Gb Converged Scalable Switch is a new Ethernet switch for the Flex System portfolio. The switch offers full Layer 2/3 switching as well as FCoE Full Fabric and Fibre Channel NPV Gateway operations to deliver a fully converged and integrated solution. The switch is... [Continue Reading]

Asking yourself how can you improve performance of your workgroup HPC workload? The answer is simple – move your workload to the IBM System x3750 M4! In this blog, I explain why. The IBM System x3750 M4 server, built on Intel Xeon processor E5-4600 product family, delivers extensive set of HPC features to provide an optimal balance between performance, energy consumption, occupied space, and acquisition and management costs for a broad range of HPC workloads being either initially deployed or moved/consolidated from the existing... [Continue Reading]

IBM System x and Big Data
Interview with Phil Horwitz, IBM Senior Engineer, Workload-optimized Systems and Big Data Technical Lead
Q: What is big data?
Phil: Basically, it’s data that comes from everywhere: from posts to social media sites, digital pictures and videos posted online, cell phone GPS signals and transaction records of online purchases. These are just a few examples. Companies are overwhelmed by this data. It’s important because it represents an opportunity for companies to gain... [Continue Reading]

Looking for a four-socket server but concerned that your disk I/O can’t keep up? Consider the new IBM Flex System x440 with solid-state drives. The x440 is a powerful four-socket Intel Xeon-based compute node that installs in the IBM Flex System Enterprise Chassis and is part of the IBM PureFlex solutions.
The Flex System x440 is a powerful system with up to four Intel Xeon E5-4600 “EP” processors each up to eight cores at 2.7 GHz, and 1.5 TB of RAM if you fully populate it with 32 GB DIMMs. And with four I/O adapter sockets, there’s... [Continue Reading]

Last week, our benchmark team further extended – by 12%! – the lead the IBM System x3850 X5 has in top OLTP performance by 4-socket systems by publishing a new TPC-E benchmark result.
This new result showcases the ability of IBM eX5 architecture and Intel Xeon E7 processor technology to continue to deliver industry-leading performance results on System x servers.
The IBM System x3850 X5 server achieved 3,218.46 tpsE (transactions per second E) at $225.30 USD / tpsE, using Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition and... [Continue Reading]

You like the capacity of 3.5-inch SATA hard drives. You like the performance of solid-state drives. Have you ever had a thought on how great would it be to combine these two in your favorite 2U rack server? If so, then I would consider the IBM System x3630 M4. Let me explain why is it so. The IBM System x3630 M4 is a dual-socket 2U rack server built on Intel's "Romley EN" architecture. It scales up to 14 internal 3.5-inch drives (that is up to 42 TB of internal storage), and it also supports external JBOD enclosures (up to 36). The x3630... [Continue Reading]

Storage is no longer an afterthought. Companies are searching for more ways to efficiently manage expanding volumes of data, and to make that data accessible throughout the enterprise. One of possible choices could be a unified NAS storage built on industry-standard IBM System x server hardware running Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2012 operating system. In this blog post, I'd like to briefly discuss my thoughts on this topic by shortly answering six questions:
Why unified NAS storage?
Why IBM System x?
Why Windows Storage... [Continue Reading]

Lots of discussions are going around about the best approach to consolidate servers. Scale-up or scale-out? Blades or traditional rack servers? While the typical answer is “it depends”, in this blog post, I would like to explore the scale-out approach using the scale-up four-socket IBM System x3750 M4 servers (I recently published a draft of the paper, IBM System x3750 M4: Consolidation Platform for Dual-socket Server Workloads , that describes x3750 M4 consolidation benefits for the... [Continue Reading]

The IBM System x3750 M4 server optimizes the value of the Intel Xeon E5-4600 processor family by providing substantial processing power in a dense 2U design. The x3750 M4 is an ideal mid-range server consolidation vehicle, enabling you to maximize return on investment while minimizing costs.
Through the use of virtualization, you can place many smaller workloads on the server, allowing you to maximize the use of available processor, memory and I/O capacity. Capacity allocation can also be adjusted dynamically to meet the needs of... [Continue Reading]

The IBM Flex System x240 Compute Node is a high-performance Intel Xeon processor-based server that offers outstanding performance for virtualization. With two Intel Xeon E5-2600 processors, up to 24 DDR3 DIMM sockets and space for two 2.5-inch spinning drives or eight 1.8-inch solid-state drives, it packs quite a punch.
For internal storage, the x240 supports up to 2 TB with 1 TB 2.5-inch NL SAS HDDs, or up to 1.6 TB with eight 200 GB 1.8-inch SSDs . But what if your applications or virtual machines need more direct-attach... [Continue Reading]

The IBM System x3850 X5 is our flagship server in the x86 portfolio, offering industry-leading performance in transactional processing .
You’re in the market for an enterprise database engine, but you’re unsure how much performance you’ll need? With the x3850 X5, you can start small but scale big. The x3850 X5 is a versatile 4-socket, 4U rack-optimized server that can hold up to 2 TB of memory.
But did you know it can scale bigger than that? Here’s a hint how: think outside the box. First let’s... [Continue Reading]

IBM recently announced support for the new Intel Xeon Phi 5110P coprocessor in the IBM System x iDataPlex dx360 M4 server. This coprocessor gives HPC and technical computing customers an additional option when it comes to increasing the parallel processing capabilities of the dx360 M4 server.
Based on the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600, the iDataPlex dx360 M4 server is a modular and highly dense system for companies running large scale-out data centers that need energy efficiency, optimized cooling, extreme scalability, high density... [Continue Reading]

Why did I ask this question? Because the processor, memory, and I/O subsystem are well balanced and virtually not considered as performance bottlenecks in the majority of Intel Xeon processor-based server systems. The major source of performance issues in many application environments (including transactional databases, business analytics and virtualization) is related to the storage I/O activity because of the speed of traditional storage systems that still does not match the processing capabilities of the servers. This disparity can lead to a... [Continue Reading]

This week, IBM Redbooks just published the second edition of the book “ IBM PureFlex System and IBM Flex System Products and Technology ”. It highlights the technology and features of the chassis, compute nodes, management features, and connectivity options. Guidance is provided about every major component, and about networking and storage connectivity.
If you’re looking for a single document that gives you “what is” information about the PureFlex and Flex System families, this is the document for you.
This update was written by Dave... [Continue Reading]

Confused about which IBM PureSystem is right for you?
IBM
PureSystems Differentiation
Blog by
Jake Kitchener, IBM Engineer
Systems Optimization Competency Center
Hi, my name is Jake
Kitchener and I’m an engineer in an IBM group called
the Systems Optimization Competency Center (SOCC). We are a development
organization focused on solution optimization with expertise in hardware, software
and services. Collectively, we have decades of experience... [Continue Reading]

Today, IBM announced new models of the IBM Flex System x220 and x240 compute nodes that are optimized as Network Attached Storage (NAS) offerings.
The Flex System x220 and x240 are high-performance Intel Xeon processor-based servers that offer great performance as entry-level and mid-level NAS offerings. The x220 NAS-optimized model has two Intel Xeon E5-2420 processors and 8 GB of RAM and the x240 model has two Intel Xeon E5-2640 processors and 16 GB of RAM. Both models have the IBM Flex System Storage Expansion Node (SEN) attached as... [Continue Reading]

Managed service provider (MSP) is a business that delivers a defined set of technology solutions or services to MSP clients with a pay-as-you-go model. MSPs are largely used by customers who want to take advantage of cloud technologies but lack the internal IT skills, resources, and time.
MSP business opportunities are growing very fast with an increased demand for managed services offerings. However, the number of MSPs and competition among them is also increasing, while the services that are offered become more commoditized. This trend... [Continue Reading]

Last week, IBM published a new TPC-C benchmark result on the IBM System x3650 M4. What makes this result interesting is that the workload is virtualized – an industry first. What is more, IBM is the first x86 server vendor to crack 1 million transactions per minute (tpmC), virtualized.
Traditionally, workloads such as database, OLTP, analytics, and ERP did not make good candidates for virtualizing, perhaps due to concerns about performance. The IBM Linux Technology Center saw an opportunity to shed new light on this position.
The... [Continue Reading]

IBM FastSetup is an innovative software tool, complete with a graphical user interface, which automates discovery, setup and configuration of servers in test and production environments.
FastSetup provides significant cost savings by reducing hands-on server setup time from days to minutes for large deployments. Users can create mass deployments of firmware updates on IBM System x3550 M4 and x3650 M4 System x rack servers, Flex System compute nodes, and BladeCenter servers – all powered by the latest Intel Xeon E5 and E7 processors. The... [Continue Reading]

An interesting question was recently raised by one of my colleagues. We know that the IBM eX5 servers with Intel Xeon processor E7 family provide advanced RAS capabilities (in addition to leading scalability and performance). We also know that the traditional dual-socket Intel Xeon processor-based servers offer standard RAS features. The question was what is the actual difference between standard and advanced RAS, and, more important, can advanced RAS features really help to achieve better availability and to what extent of so? In other words,... [Continue Reading]

The IBM Flex System CN4054 10Gb Virtual Fabric Adapter is a 4-port 10Gb converged network adapter for Intel Xeon processor-based compute nodes such as the Flex System x240 or Flex System x220. The adapter scales to up to 16 virtual ports and supports 10 Gb Ethernet, iSCSI, and FCoE.
The iSCSI and FCoE support is optional and enabled via a license key using the IBM Features on Demand process whereby you purchase an activation key, apply the Integrated Management Module (IMM2) web interface and the feature is enabled on the card.
... [Continue Reading]

I'm currently working on an IBM Redbooks publication that discusses key aspects in planning and implementing one of IBM SmartCloud Desktop Infrastructure solutions - IBM Virtual Desktop with VERDE from Virtual Bridges. Based on what I've learned, I'd like to share some thoughts about it.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is a hot topic these days, and VDI provides compelling benefits to the businesses, including:
Lower TCO over extended period compared to traditional PCs
Simplified... [Continue Reading]

I’m in the process of wrapping up the sixth edition of the IBM Redpaper “ IBM eX5 Portfolio Overview ”, covering the three eX5 servers, the IBM System x3850 X5, x3690 X5 and IBM BladeCenter HX5.
My colleague and System x expert, Duncan Furniss from IBM Canada, came on an IBM Redbooks residency to our office here in Raleigh NC in the USA and helped me update this paper. With our findings, I thought I’d update you why the x3850 X5 is still the best choice for high-performance database applications.
The x3850 X5... [Continue Reading]

Have you ever been interested in evaluating or testing an SAP environment to address your business needs? You've probably heard about SAP solutions, and you understand the potential benefits of SAP, but you definitely want to do a test drive to touch a sample system and play with it in a risk-free environment... Or you may want to build a prototype before making a decision... Or you need to develop and test your SAP applications in a non-production environment... Or you may even need to do an SAP application training for your team... In any... [Continue Reading]

Last month, IBM announced the results of two benchmarks evaluating the performance of the IBM System x iDataPlex dx360 M4 server. We announced scores for both the SPEC CPU2006 and SPECjbb2005 benchmarks. These complement the SPECpower_ssj2008 benchmark published in November last year.
These three industry benchmarks were used because they represent the types of workloads best suited for the dx360 M4:
SPECpower_ssj2008 evaluates the power and performance characteristics of volume server class and multi-node class computers. The... [Continue Reading]

I finished the work on the IBM Redpaper which describes enhancements in capabilities of the IBM eX5 servers with support for the latest technologies. The draft of the paper is now published ( http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp5002.html ), and I wanted to highlight some interesting facts covered in it.
As you probably know, the x3850 X5 is IBM flagship server, with 4 processor sockets supporting the Intel Xeon processor E7 family with up to 10 cores per processor, and up to 2 TB of RAM. The server can expand, and by attaching a... [Continue Reading]

This month, we announced a new record benchmark result for virtualization with the Flex System x240 Compute Node with Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux® 6.4 running the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor.
IBM delivered leadership performance on the SPECvirt_sc2010 benchmark with the publication of the overall highest score ever achieved by a system using 2 processors (1).
SPECvirt_sc2010 is a workload that is focused on VM density, and offers key metric which you can use to understand how well a virtualization solution can consolidate... [Continue Reading]

Today IBM announced its family of flash memory-based storage systems - IBM FlashSystem. Purpose-built FlashSystem storage systems expand capabilities of the existing IBM portfolio of solid-state drive (SSD)-based offerings which includes SSD adapters, SSDs for servers and storage systems, and eXFlash.
FlashSystem storage systems deliver over 500,000 read IOPS with less than 100 microseconds latency, while they provide up to 20 TB of usable 2D Flash RAID protected data storage just in 1U of rack space. They feature one of the... [Continue Reading]

The IBM Redbooks team recently published a new IBM Redpaper entitled " Building a Smarter Data Center with IBM Flex System and Juniper Networks QFabric ". The paper highlights how the data center infrastructure has evolved over time and what's needed to remedy the escalating challenges in a smarter way. It also describes how to use the technologies within IBM Flex System and Juniper Networks QFabric to address complexity and mitigate the common constraints of the traditional data center infrastructure.
The paper explores the... [Continue Reading]

In my previous blog post, IBM delivers more than 20 millions IOPS and up to 1 PB storage capacity in a single 42U rack , I introduced new IBM flash storage offerings - IBM FlashSystem storage systems. They deliver over 500,000 read IOPS with less than 100 microseconds latency, providing up to 20 TB of usable 2D Flash RAID protected data storage just in 1U of rack space.
Today I wanted to highlight the benefits offered by FlashSystem family in... [Continue Reading]

This week, IBM Redbooks published the first draft of the new edition of the book " Implementing the IBM BladeCenter S Chassis ". This book is meant to be the one-stop guide to getting BladeCenter S up and running.
BladeCenter S is a compelling offering for a branch office or distributed environment because the chassis holds all the components you need - blade servers, switches and share storage. And a big plus for customers in some countries, the BladeCenter S operates on 110V power if needed.
The author team: Josh... [Continue Reading]

If you are looking for an enterprise-grade x86 server to run mission-critical database or virtualization applications, then look no further than IBM eX5 servers. Here are 5 things to know about them:
1. IBM eX5 systems are based on Intel Xeon E7 processors
The Xeon E7 processor family is Intel’s flagship processor product line, which is designed to maximize performance, scalability and reliability. They feature large cache sizes and large numbers of cores. Intel Xeon E7 processors offer enterprise grade reliability,... [Continue Reading]

There has to be a better way of doing things… - IBM Systems Director 6.3 Best Practices Redbook
We’ve all asked ourselves that question multiple times. This is especially true in the IT industry where creative thinking can save thousands of dollars. But what’s the best way of answering that question?
I remember the first time I heard about “the mailbox” solution from the Apollo 13 mission: under extreme pressure, and to save the lives of several astronauts, a bunch... [Continue Reading]

In April, IBM announced IBM System x GPFS Storage Server (GSS), a new storage solution based on System x hardware and IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS). Here are 5 things to know about the new solution:
1. GPFS Storage Server is powered by IBM GPFS software, running on many of the world's largest scientific supercomputers and commercial applications
GPFS is a high-performance shared-disk clustered file management solution. It provides fast and reliable access to a common set of data, online storage management, scalable... [Continue Reading]

Currently, the processor, memory, and I/O subsystem are well balanced and virtually not considered as performance bottlenecks in the majority of systems. The main source of performance issues tends to be related to storage I/O activity because the speed of traditional HDD-based storage systems still does not match the processing capabilities of the servers. As a result, alternative storage technologies, such as solid-sate storage, are being adopted by the industry to solve these issues.
One of the most common SSD deployment scenarios is... [Continue Reading]

IBM System x and SAP HANA
Hi, my name is Oliver Rettig and I’m based out of Boeblingen, Germany. I’m in an IBM group called the Solution Center of Excellence. Quite simply, our organization works with clients to solicit feedback on current technology and gain insight into their future requirements. We use this information to create solutions that client’s find highly valuable.
One of the solutions we have been focused on for the past few years is SAP HANA. I started... [Continue Reading]

Currently, companies are searching for more ways to efficiently manage expanding volumes of data, and to make that data accessible throughout the enterprise. One of the possible choices could be a unified NAS storage.
Unified NAS storage has the following characteristics:
Supports concurrent block- and file-level storage access.
Provides centralized data storage for the application and user data.
Supports centralized backup, with file- or application-level recovery.
Utilizes cost-efficient LAN... [Continue Reading]

In the recently published IBM Redpaper, Enhancing Capabilities of the IBM eX5 Portfolio with the Latest Technologies , I discuss scalability enhancements in Windows Server 2012 compared to Windows Server 2008 R2, and how IBM eX5 servers can benefit from these enhancements. In this blog, I want to summarize my findings.
As you already know, the x3850 X5 is IBM flagship server, with 4 processor sockets supporting the Intel Xeon processor E7 family with up to 10 cores per processor, and up to... [Continue Reading]

Your datacenter is an expensive way to keep your Pepsi cans coo l !
Guest blog from Srikanth Aithal - Senior Staff Software Engineer at IBM India
Once, we visited a customer for an IBM Systems Director enablement engagement. He wanted to take us to his datacenter to show all the servers and other datacenter equipment. We followed him to his datacenter. As he was the only person having access to the datacenter door, he requested access and held the door open for us to get inside. The datacenter was not so... [Continue Reading]

By Stephen Smith, IBM Redbooks
Data. It comes in many forms and from practically everywhere and contains everything from the mundane to the critical. Digital pictures and videos, emails, medical, financial, and purchase transaction records, posts to social media sites and blogs (like this one). Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. Data that, for the most part, never goes away and continually multiplies and will continue to do so.
Consider this: 90% of the data in the world today was created in the last two years.... [Continue Reading]

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